Are CD-R’s the same a CD-ROM’s?

While the discs are similar and can be read by the same CD-ROM players, the method of producing the discs is totally different. Standard CD’s are produced in replication plants which product thousands of CD’s at a time in a manner similar to stamping out vinyl records. This process creates microscopic indentations and plateaus on the bottom side of a CD. The CD player interprets the indentations or rather the change from indentation to plateau as 0’s and 1’s. Recordable CD’s are produced one at a time in a process that takes about 5 minutes at 16x recording. A low power laser beam is focused on the underside of a specially prepared CD. The undersides of these discs are coated with a light sensitive dye that reacts when the laser beam strikes it. The laser beam creates discolored areas that mimic the indentations and plateaus of a standard CD.

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